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Jacksonville Armada pick Baseball Grounds for home pitch

Bob.Mack@jacksonville.com Jacksonville Armada officials said they hope no more than 10 baseball-soccer transitions will be necessary in sharing the Baseball Grounds with the Jacksonville Suns.

The Jacksonville Armada will begin its voyage from the heart of downtown.

The new North American Soccer League franchise announced Friday a three-year deal to play its home games at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. The team chose the Baseball Grounds, home of the Jacksonville Suns minor league team, over the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium. The Armada said it hopes someday to have a soccer stadium of its own.

The deal is dependent on City Council approval to authorize the Armada to play at the city-owned ballpark, as well as to cover a portion of the cost involved in converting the park between baseball and soccer. Mayor Alvin Brown and City Councilman Johnny Gaffney both offered their support for the legislation on Friday.

The Armada chose the Baseball Grounds after talks between the Armada and UNF failed to reach an agreement.

Team owner Mark Frisch said the Armada “went all the way through the negotiations with UNF, made a bunch of assumptions, and ran the numbers” before deciding on the Baseball Grounds.

He cited the challenges involved in improving the Hodges Stadium seating areas, concession stands and walkways beneath the grandstand.

“It was two very different options,” he said. “One great field where we would have to do upgrades to the venue, and one wonderful stadium with all of the amenities but not having the perfect field situation.’’

UNF athletic director Lee Moon acknowledged a meeting with the Armada, saying “a lot of things were discussed, never in detail, just general terms,” and that the negotiations were “not just an athletic decision.”

Frisch expressed confidence that soccer fans throughout the area, many of whom live to the south and east of the St. Johns River or in Clay County, would be willing to travel the extra distance downtown.

“We’re going to talk up this place, show them some of the layouts that we have here, and show them that this is a fantastic venue for soccer,” he said.

One challenge for the Baseball Grounds will be converting the stadium from baseball to soccer and back, including the removal or retraction of the pitcher’s mound to accommodate soccer.

“I have some trepidation about the field, which is natural. I don’t think it’s perfect for soccer and baseball to share,” Bragan said. “But we’re going to do everything we can to make it work.”

Armada president Steve Livingstone said that the park would have a capacity of about 9,000 for soccer, which might be expanded by several hundred more depending on capacity in the standing terraces beyond the left field foul line for baseball.

He said that 2,000 season ticket reservations have already been sold, with prices ranging from $10-$50 per game.

Livingstone said the Armada plans to play most home matches on Saturday and Wednesday nights, although the exact arrangement will be dictated in part by the Suns’ Southern League schedule. The NASL schedule is expected to run from April to November.

He said that converting the field would likely take eight to 12 hours, and the club is hoping to keep the total number of transitions below 10.

“It’s going to be dependent on the way the schedules fit out. Obviously, we’d like it to be less than that, and we’ll work with the NASL as well in terms of scheduling,” Livingstone said. “The Suns come first, and we’ll work our way around that.”

Frisch also said the Armada is still in the exploratory phase of pursuing its long-term goal of a soccer-specific venue.

When asked whether the three-year deal meant that the club intends to have the stadium completed by 2018, Frisch said he was hopeful but acknowledged there is much work to be done.

For now, he’s busy with the work of transforming the Armada’s first home into a soccer venue that he hopes will leave fans “surprised and impressed.”

“This was one of those big events on our list of things to do that we can now check off. One more question that our fans have been asking is answered,” Frisch said. “So now we can focus on selling tickets and getting fans in love with this place.”